Johnston (Iowa), Dec. 18: Hillary Clinton has appealed to voters to appreciate her softer side, as she launched a fight-back for the Democratic Partys presidential nomination.

The former First Lady appeared at a community hall in Iowa, where the first votes in the primary phase of the election will be cast in two weeks time. She was accompanied by old friends and constituents who testified to her humane qualities.

After a marathon campaign lasting almost a year, Hillary has convinced voters she is capable of being President but has still not dispelled the impression of a somewhat cold, calculating woman. Barack Obama, who now leads her in Iowa, is by contrast all warmth, smiles and optimism. I want you to know who I am outside the TV cameras, what I do when no one is listening or taking notes or recording, she told the audience of 100 crammed into the hall in Johnston.

She introduced a childhood friend, Betsy Ebeling, who once guided a teenage Hillary Rodham along the corridors of their high school in Chicago when she removed her bottle-end spectacles because they made her self-conscious around boys.

Ebeling, who fought back tears as she described the woman she has known for 50 years, said: This is a good, hard working friend; she is loyal to friends, she remembers them and she remembers their kids.

Shannon Mallozzi told how the New York Senator had taken up her cause to demand Congressional funding for her young daughters rare brain disorder, hydrocephalus.

My perception of her was media-cultivated. I thought she was a bit remote but I found she was nothing like that, she said. The meeting was part of the five-day 99 County Tour that will take Mrs Clinton or members of her family and friends to every county in Iowa, with the candidate doing much of her travelling by the so-called Hill-a-copter.